Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	ireland_n	king_n	statute_n	2,756	5	8.4949	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32757	Innocence vindicated by a brief and impartial narrative of the proceedings of the Court of Sessions in Bristol against Ichabod Chauncy, physitian in that city, to his conviction on the statute of the 35th Eliz. on the 9th of April, and to his abjuration of all the Kings dominions for ever, Aug. 15, 1684 : together with some passages subsequent thereunto / published by the said I. Chavncy.	Chauncy, Ichabod, d. 1691.; England and Wales. Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace (Bristol)	1684 (1684)	Wing C3743; ESTC R22817	12,930	20

about the same thing and was as Zealous for Sir Robert Atkins as any of them this is notoriously known and he confessed it before he departed the Room I Nominated him for one because I thought it hard and unreasonable that he should be a means to bring so many scores if not Hundreds in trouble meerly for his own Advantage in a matter wherein he was equally concerned with them and knew them all innocent upon this he was greatly displeased with me as supposing this Discovery might threaten his place at that Juncture of time though I told the Justices that I knew of no unlawful Act committed by the said Club neither did charge him with any Howbeit ever since this he entertained an implacable Prejudice against me and threatned to divers that he would speedily either cast me in a Goal or make me fly the Country This I suppose he will not deny In pursuance whereof though I stood indicted two years before on the same 35th of Eliz. by him yet the very next Quarter-Sessions prefers two more heavy indictments against me at one and the same time either of them enough to ruine me The one upon the Statute of Eliz. 23. for twenty pound a Month for eleven Months The other on the 35th Eliz. on which last for want of any later Crime he chargeth me for one Committed above four years before the Indictment And having got the Bills found by the Grand Jury so earnestly was he bent upon their Prosecution that he exacts of me Recognizances more than double to what was required of others in the like Case viz. 200 l. to each of mine whereas another indicted on the 35th of Eliz. was bound but in 80 l. But because my chief concern lies with this last Indictment which threatens my Estate Liberty and Life 't is most reasonable I should be most concerned about the Management thereof against me But 't is not fit for me to judge as being too partial in my own Cause I had rather therefore that those whose part it is would undertake it on my behalf But before any true Judgment can pass for or against me 't is needful the Indictment should be produced which runs after this manner Comitat. Civit Bristol THE Jurors for Our Lord the King do upon their Oath present That one Ichabod Chauncy late of the City of Bristol in the County of the said City Physitian Who on the third Day of August in the Thirty first Year of the Raign of Our Soveraegn Lord Charles the Second by the Grace of God of England Scotland France and Ireland King c. Being of the Age of Sixteen Years and upwards did Obstinately willingly and without any Reasonable Cause refuse accedere Anglice to Repair to any Church Chappel or usual Place of Common-Prayers to hear Divine Service now Established by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm of England And as before from the foresaid third Day of August in the Thirty first Year aforesaid Obstinately Voluntarily and without any Reasonable Cause Abstained from Hearing Divine Service in any Church Chappel or Vsual Place of Common-Prayer unto the fourteenth Day of September in the Year before-mentioned viz. by the Space of one Month and more thence next following And the aforesaid Jurors upon their Oaths aforesaid do further say that the aforesaid Ichabod Chauncy the same fourteenth Day of September in the One and Thirtieth Year aforesaid in the Precincts of the Castle within the said City and County of Bristol in a certain House was there of himself present at an Vnlawful Assembly Conventicle or Convention under Colour and Pretence of the Exercise of Religion against the Form of the Statute in such Case made and Provided And also against the Peace of Our Soveraign Lord the King c. Whether this Indictment be faulty or not in point of Law 't is not proper for me who am the Party concerned and no Lawyer to determine but I 'll tell the Reader that the day before my Tryal 't was the judgment of a cunning Lawyer that pleaded earnestly against me upon it the next day the first letters of whose name is Mr. J. H. that 't was so illegal and faulty that 't was not worth a F and that they could not touch an hair of my head by it and that 't was not worth a Fee to be quit of such an Indictment thus he expressed himself That which to me seems hard in the management thereof is First That notwithstanding 't was by my Councel pleaded that Justices in Sessions had no Power or Authority to inquire into and judge upon Crimes relating to that Statute which Plea was according to the Sentiments of many if not most of the ablest Lawyers in England yea and of one of the Learned Counsel which pleaded against me who but the Sessions before did with great strength of Law and Reason plead against the Jurisdiction of that Court to try a Gentleman in the very same Circumstances and that Mr. Vincent either was actually or like to be discharged by Writ of Error upon the Plea viz. That he was Tryed Coram non Judice i. e. by Justices of the Peace in Sessions that yet they would proceed to assume that Power to themselves though to make me the first example which hath been in England upon this Statute for many years and when my Counsel told them of how ill consequence it might be for them to proceed in case upon a review it should prove that they had not Authority so to do this they were told was to Hector the Court. Secondly That notwithstanding the Statute urged by my Counsel of Eliz. 31. chap. 5. Paragr 5. where 't is expresly said That no Indictment shall lye upon any Penal Statute beyond two years but if it be laid for a Crime beyond it shall be void and of none effect any Statute to the contrary notwithstanding And my Indictment appears to be laid for Crimes more then four years backwards before the Indictment yet must it be allowed for Legal Thirdly That whereas the Indictment chargeth me that obstinately and willingly I refused to come to some Church or Chappel to hear Divine Service wherein doubtless the Stress of the Act lyes for a bare abstinence for four weeks another Law punishes but at four shillings and being at a Conventicle at five shillings or ten at the most but these punishes these two put together with Imprisonment loss of the whole Estate and perpetual Banishment or Death therefore doubtless lyes the chief of the Crime upon obstinate refusing to come to Church this my Counsel told them necessarily supposed some legal Premonition viz. either by the Ordinary or Parson of the Parish c. but no such thing was attempted to be proved against me and yet I must be found guilty of the whole Indictment Fourthly They did moreover admit of so light a proof of the Conventicle which was one Essential Branch of the indictment in this weighty case as would

INNOCENCE VINDICATED BY A Brief and Impartial Narrative OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE Court of Sessions IN BRISTOL AGAINST Ichabod Chauncy Physitian in that City TO HIS Conviction on the Statute of the 35th Eliz. on the 9th of April and to his Abjuration of all the Kings Dominions for ever Aug. 15. 1684. TOGETHER With some Passages Subsequent thereunto Published by the said I. CHAVNCY Prov. 27.4 Wrath is cruel and Anger is outragious but who can stand before Envy Psal 9.9 The Lord will be a Refuge for the Oppressed a Refuge in times of Trouble LONDON Printed by George Larkin at the lower End of Broad street next to London-Wall 1684. Innocence Vindicated c. THough the Law under which I suffer be by far the most severe of any in England that Respects Religious matters yea far beyond any that concerns the Papists as such yet had not I judged that there had been open Violence offered to several plain Statutes in the Management of my Prosecution and bringing me under present Circumstances and all other Ways and Attempts for Redress to my present Grievances rendred utterly ineffectual through the restless Solicitations and false Representations of my implacable though causeless Adversaries I had saved both my Self and the World the trouble of this present Narrative But now having no other way left to Vindicate my self That the World may pass a right Judgment both of my Person and Sufferings I am fain to give a plain Account both of the one and of the other and leave them to judge of both Hoping also that hereby his Majesty may take Occasion to see how much many of his Subjects are abused and oppressed by the malicious Prosecutions of some inferiour Officers who prosecute Penal Laws upon them rather to satisfie their own Lusts and personal Revenge then for any true Zeal they have either to Justice or Loyalty And when they have Oppressed any by illegal Proceedings least their unjust Practices should be detected and they suffer shame for the same being afraid to be brought to the Light least their Deeds should be Reproved The next Design is by Calumnies and false Insinuations to Render the Persons of those whom they have injured as dangerous to the Government and only fit to be destroyed yea to Obstruct and Obviate all possible Attempts that their Oppressed Adversaries can make for their just Vindication which they do by frustrating their Endeavours in seeking Justice by Appeals either by Way-laying them in all their steps and so hindring their Access unto or by Prae-occupying the minds of those with Prejudices against them who only are capable to Vindicate or do them Right These having been the Methods of my chiefest Adversaries first by rendring my Person Vile and Contemptible and then as Dangerous and Disaffected to the Government And next by putting a fair Gloss upon their own Proceedings against me and Obviating all my Applications for a Relief by Writ of Error and Self-vindication I am forced in a way of Self-Defence to undertake a double work First to give the World an Account of my Person and Principles and then of the Beginning as well as Progress of my present Persecution As to my civil Profession I am a Physician was born of Pious and Generous Parents of Competent Estate was bred a Schollar from my Childhood and through the Bounty of the Almighty was never driven to the Straits of taking upon me the mean Employment of a Drummer as some of my Adversaries have often scornfully and against Knowledge Reproached me I have been a Master of Arts almost this thirty years have been a Licentiate of the Colledge of Physitians in London well towards twenty years have practised Physick in Bristol with considerable Success and general Acceptation near this eighteen years dare Challenge the worst of mine Adversaries to say and prove it wherein I have all this while Acted any thing that looks Disloyal to the King Yea I Account it my Duty to be subject to the Higher Powers and believe that whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and shall receive unto themselves Damnation and that this Subjection among Christians should not be only for Wrath but for Conscience sake And as matter of Duty and a thing that is good and acceptable in the fight of God I do dayly heartily pray for the Kings Person and for all that are in Authority under him and therefore profess my self an open Enemy to any Plots or Attempts against the Kings Person and Government and as a Testimony of my Loyalty am is ready as any of my Adversaries to give all reasonable Assurance of my Fidelity to the Government by taking the usual Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy And let them also if they can testify against me of any Injustice or Unmercifulness toward my Neighbour or Insobriety and Intemperance towards my self And as for my Religion I own my self a Protestant and for my Faith do believe all the Doctrinal Principles Contained in the Articles of the Church of England and as for Worship have Accomodated the same as near as I could to the Rule of Gods Word and the best Examples of Primitive Saints and wherein I have in any thing differed from the publick instituted way of Worship have always laboured to manage my self with the least Offence imaginable towards those from whom I have Dissented avoiding all Censoriousness of others differing from me If these things be otherwise I dare say with Job Chap. 31.35 36 37. Let my Adversary write it in a Book and if he can prove the contrary c. As to my present Sufferings in Order to a due Understanding thereof 't is needful to Reflect upon the Cause and Occasion as well as the manner of managing thereof The internal moving cause thereof I take to be an implacable Prejudice formed in the mind of Mr. Romsey our Town-clark of Bristol against me occasioned chiefly after this following manner if I mistake not though he had declared before that some Prejudice against me Soon after the breaking out of the late Plot it became a common Discourse that all the Kings Head Club in London were concerned in it and that the Horse-shooe Club in Bristol so called because during the time of the last Election of Parliament-men several Citizens intending to chuse Sir Robert Atkins and Sir Jonathan Knight Senior Parliament men for that City did frequently Assemble there about that Affair were a Branch of the same and that all the said Club should be Indicted and divers of them sent for up to the Councel-Table in order to which divers were convened before our Justices to be examined about it among which I was one when I came before them among other things they questioned me what Persons used to meet there Seeing Mr. Romsey Siting by and writing Letters as I judged about that matter I named him for one who met though not in the same place yet at the Mare-maid Tavern with the same Persons